Women's cinema

Alice Guy-Blaché was a film pioneer and the first female director.[3] Working for the Gaumont Film Company in France at the time that the cinema was being invented, she created La Fée aux Choux (1896). The dates of many early films are speculative, but La Fée aux Choux may well be the first narrative film ever released.[4] She served as Gaumont's head of production from 1896 to 1906 and ultimately produced hundreds of silent films in France and the United States.[5]

Luise Fleck was an Austrian film director, and considered the second ever female feature film director in the world, after Alice Guy-Blaché. In 1911 Luise Fleck directed Die Glückspuppe.

In Sweden, Anna Hofman-Uddgren was that country's first female film maker—producing the silent film Stockholmsfrestelser in 1911. She also acted in the film.[6] However, Ebba Lindkvist directed the short drama, Värmländingarna, which premièred in Sweden on 27 October 1910, thus technically making her the first woman film maker.[7]

Elvira Notari is the first Italian woman director to make a film. Notari's first films are Maria Rosa di Santa Flavia, Carmela la pazza, Bufera d'anime, all made in 1911.

Helen Gardner, a Vitagraph Studios player who had won acclaim for her portrayal of Becky Sharp in the 1910 version of Vanity Fair, was the first film actor, male or female, to form her own production company, The Helen Gardner Picture Players.[8] Gardner’s first production was Cleopatra (1912), one of the first American full-length films.

In 1913 Russian filmmaker Olga Preobrazhenskaya began directing films in the "Timan and Reingardt" studio. She is the first Russian woman director. Her first work as a director was the 1916 film Miss Peasant based on the work of the same name by Aleksandr Pushkin.

American-born director, Lois Weber was coached and inspired by Guy-Blaché and found success in creating silent films.[9] Weber is well known for her films Hypocrites (1915), The Blot (1921), and Suspense (1913). Weber's films often focus on difficult social issues. For instance, her film Where Are My Children? (1916) addresses the controversial issues of birth control and abortion. And she questioned the validity of capital punishment in The People vs. John Doe (1916).[10][11]

Mabel Normand was another significant early female filmmaker. She started as an actress and became a producer-writer-director in the 1910s, working on the first shorts Charlie Chaplin did as The Tramp at Mack Sennett's Keystone Studios.[12] She further collaborated with Sennett on other Keystone films and, during the late 1910s and early 1920s, she had her own movie studio and production company.[13] Other notable actresses who became directors include Grace Cunard and Nell Shipman.

Women screenwriters were highly sought after in the early years of the cinema. Frances Marion, Anita Loos, and June Mathis all had successful careers in the silent and early-sound eras. Mathis was also the first female executive in Hollywood.

As the American cinema became a highly commercialized industry in the 1920s and its content became more and more conventionalized, the opportunities for women producers and directors became fewer and fewer. By the time sound arrived in the US in 1927 and the years immediately after, women's roles behind the camera were largely limited to scriptwriters, costume designers, set decorators, make-up artists, and the like. And the industry's implementation of self-censorship in the form of the Hays Code in 1934 meant that topics such as birth control and abortion were taboo. Dorothy Arzner was the only woman director to survive in this unfriendly environment. She did so by producing well made but formally rather conventional films. Nevertheless, it is possible to trace feminist elements in her films.[14] Film critics find her film, Dance, Girl, Dance, about two women struggling to make it in show business, to be particularly interesting from a feminist perspective. When the film was selected for inclusion in the National Film Registry, it was noted that "The dancers, played by Maureen O'Hara and Lucille Ball, strive to preserve their own feminist integrity, while fighting for their place in the spotlight and for the love of male lead Louis Hayward."[15] Beyond Dance, Girl, Dance, Arzner also worked with some of Hollywood's most formidable actresses—including Katharine Hepburn in Christopher Strong (1933) and Joan Crawford in The Bride Wore Red (1937).

First woman to direct a film noir, Ida Lupino, is widely regarded as the most prominent female filmmaker working in the 1950s during the Hollywood studio system. She is best known for directing The Hitch-Hiker. Ida Lupino is also famous for her work as an actress.

The experimental and avant-garde cinema is the genre considered to be closer to women filmmakers and one that also advances women themes. Annette Kuhn, for instance, noted such special affinity by citing that low investments of money and 'professionalism' have meant that it is more open than the mainstream film industry for women.[16] Both Pam Cook and Laura Mulvey also noted an alignment and alliance of experimental and avant-garde cinema with feminist interest and feminist politics. Specifically, Mulvey explained that mainstream or Hollywood films are unable to provide the experience of contradiction, reinforcing anti-realism and, this is where the avant-garde cinema is useful for women and feminism because they share "a common interest in the politics of images and problems of aesthetic language."[17]

Women's involvement in the experimental and avant-garde cinema started in the early twentieth century, although it was limited due to the constraints of the social conventions of this period.[2] It was only after the war when women became actively involved in this cinematic genre. Germaine Dulac was a leading member of the French avant-garde film movement after World War I.[18] There is also the case of Maya Deren's visionary films, which belonged to the classics of experimental cinema and focused on the North-American avant-garde.[19] The contemporaneous trend did not oppose the female filmmakers' entry into avant-garde filmmaking although, in its early years, they did not receive as much critical acclaim as their male counterparts.[2]

Shirley Clarke was a leading figure of the independent American film scene in New York in the fifties.[20] Her work is unusual, insofar as she directed outstanding experimental and feature films as well as documentaries. Joyce Wieland was a Canadian experimental film maker. The National Film Board of Canada allowed many women to produce non-commercial animation films. In Europe women artists like Valie Export were among the first to explore the artistic and political potential of videos.

In the late sixties, when the second wave of feminism started, the New Left was at its height. Both movements strongly opposed the 'dominant cinema', i.e. Hollywood and male European bourgeois auteur cinema. Hollywood was accused of furthering oppression by disseminating sexist, racist and imperialist stereotypes. Women participated in mixed new collectives like Newsreel, but they also formed their own film groups. Early feminist films often focused on personal experiences. A first masterpiece was Wanda by Barbara Loden, one of the most poignant portraits of alienation ever made.[21]

Second-wave feminism would reveal itself in different forms in films in the latter part of the 20th century such as with the idea of "sisterhoods" in movies, a good example of which is Steel Magnolias in 1989.[22] Other concepts of second-wave feminism in films involved women's oppression and the difficulty in identifying with the idea of femininity. During this time, feminism in movies would also be represented as a counter-cinema[23] whereby filmmakers would attempt to intentionally deconstruct the model of the classical film. This style of feminist counter-cinema can be seen in the works of artists such as Sally Potter's Thriller in 1979.

Resisting the oppression of female sexuality was one of the core goals of second-wave feminism. Abortion was still very controversial in many western societies and feminists opposed the control of the state and the church. Exploring female sexuality took many forms: focusing on long-time censured forms of sexuality (lesbianism, sado-masochism) or showing heterosexuality from a woman's point of view. Birgit Hein, Elfi Mikesch, Nelly Kaplan, Catherine Breillat and Barbara Hammer are some of the directors to be remembered.

A film notable for its empathic portrayal of sex work is Lizzie Borden's Working Girls (1986). Molly, a white lesbian in a stable mixed-race relationship, is a Yale-educated photographer who has chosen to augment her income through sex work in a low-key urban brothel. We accompany Molly on what turns out to be her last day on the job, understanding her professional interactions with her "johns" through her perspective, a completely original point of view, since, until Borden's film, sex workers had largely been depicted stereotypically. The story's sympathetic, well-rounded character and situation humanizes sex work, and the film itself combats the anti-pornography stance touted by many second-wave feminists, which Borden rejects as repressive.[24]

Typically women are portrayed as dependent on other characters, overemotional, and confined to low status jobs when compared to enterprising and ambitious male characters (Bussey & Bandura, 1999). Women in cinema are grossly misrepresented and definitely under represented. The roles that men play are the superhero, the wealthy business man or the all-powerful villain. When it comes to the roles females play they tend to be the housewife, the woman who can't obtain a man, the slut, or the secretary. The true comparison is masculinity versus femininity. The Bechdel test for film is a type of litmus test that examines the representation of women in media. The 3 factors tested are: 1. Are there at least 2 women in the film who have names? 2. Do those women talk to each other? 3. Do they talk to each other about something other than a man? (Sharma & Sender, 2014). Many roles that are given to women make them either dependent on the male counterpart or limits their role. Another characteristic of their role placement is that women are twice as likely to have a life-related role rather than a work-related role. Hollywood rarely chooses to have women be the all-powerful boss or to even have a successful career. There have been some examples that break this norm, such as The Proposal or I Don't Know How She Does It. Even in these two films, the male counterpart is a strong role and in both the female lead is reliant on both actors for the storyline. Women do not stand on their own in movies and rarely are the center of attention without a male being there to steal the limelight. Some roles that have been portrayed in recent films have worked against this norm, such as Katniss in Hunger Games and Furiosa in Mad Max: Fury Road. These roles break the norm, as women typically are portrayed as dependent on other characters, overemotional, and confined to low-status jobs compared to enterprising and ambitious male characters (Bussey & Bandura, 1999). Women in cinema are grossly misrepresented and underrepresented.[25]

Many women fear(ed) even entering the film industry, let alone produce multiple pieces of work in the industry. It is said that both male and female workers believe hiring women into the industry is taking a big chance, or being risky.[26] There are many discriminatory acts toward women during the hiring process into the industry such as age discrimination and providing them with lower pay rates.[26] Most women workers in the film industry only become freelancers, which in most cases prevents them from creating careers and making a living out of their film/cinematography passion.[27] These are the fear tactics in place, whether purposely or not, to prevent women from thriving in the film industry.

However, there is much more gendered discrimination towards women after they receive the job and actually begin to help and/or produce work. Statistics show that there are not many women in senior positions in the industry.[27] Compared to the number of women hired, it is clearly shown that women are not given the chance to keep their jobs for long periods of time. "However, it is notable that women lost their jobs at a rate that was six times that of men, indicating the particular and heightened vulnerability of women in the industry."[27] Women are not being promoted into higher positions as often as their male counterparts and are not even given the chance to stay long enough to get promoted. These are multiple issues happening during the hiring process and even the post-hire experiences of women which may make other women fear entering the industry in the first place.

The way women are treated in the workplace are also evidence of the inequalities against them in the film industry. Women's pay rates and expectations in their background/experience in cinematography is much different than male workers. There are many scenarios in the industry that displays the woman with more qualifications for the job than the man, yet earns less money for the same job than the man.[28] "It is worth noting that women in this field are significantly better qualified than their male counterparts, with a greater proportion being graduates and an even more significant difference in the numbers of women, compared to men, with higher degrees (Skillset, 2010a: 6)."[27] Even the women who are overqualified are treated as if they are not, resulting in them working extra hard to become better and be rewarded as their male counterparts.[28] All of these inequalities and discrimination toward women in the film industry creates a fear for women to even want to enter the industry.

Resisting patriarchal violence was a key concern of second-wave feminism during the 1960s to the 1980s.[29] Consequently, many feminists of the second wave have taken part in the peace movements of the eighties, as had their foremothers in the older pacifist movements. The effects that war conflict had on women following the cold war was often overlooked. Post cold-war conflicts resulted in women being subjected to increased forms of torture, rape, and violence.[30] This caused an increase in women's peace organizations and initiatives to protest violence against women, resulting in more criticism of the patriarchal cliché of the 'peaceable' woman.[30] Women film directors documented the participation of women in anti-imperialist resistance movements. Inspired by the Hindu goddess Mother Kali—who is traditionally associated with sexuality, violence, and motherly-tenderness - German filmmakers Birgit and Wilhelm Hein created their Kali Film, which depicts women as violent and threatening, the opposite of the innocent “caretaker” stereotype generally assigned to women characters.[31] The filmmakers assembled found footage from 'trivial' genres, the only domain of cinema in which the portrayal of aggressive women was allowed.

Filmmakers have also begun to take on representations of sexuality and gender in films directed specifically at college students. As campus sexual assault continues to pervade universities, filmmakers have started to create films that address these issues. In 2014 a group of students and faculty at Texas Tech University created the film series "Sexism | Cinema" to provide education on violence against women and sexual abuse on college campuses.[32] In 2015, the films were screened and over 500 students were in attendance.[32]

Kathryn Bigelow works in male-dominated genres like science fiction, action and horror. She became the first woman to win an Academy Award for Best Director and the Directors Guild of America Award in 2010 for The Hurt Locker.[1][33] In 2013, her film Zero Dark Thirty was met with universal acclaim[34] and grossed $95 million in the United States box office.[35] Bigelow went on to be nominated for Best Director at the BAFTA Awards, Golden Globe Awards and Directors Guild of America Award among others. However, she failed to be shortlisted for the category at the 85th Academy Awards in what was widely seen as a snub.[36][37][38]

Anne Fletcher has directed four studio-financed films: Step Up (2006), 27 Dresses (2008), The Proposal (2009) and The Guilt Trip (2012) which have gone on to gross over $343 million at the US box office and $632 million worldwide.[39] She is also attached to direct the sequel to the 2007 film Enchanted.[40]

Catherine Hardwicke's films have grossed a cumulative total of $551.8 million.[41] Her most successful films are Twilight (2008) and Red Riding Hood (2011).

Nancy Meyers has enjoyed success with her five features: The Parent Trap (1998), What Women Want (2000), Something's Gotta Give (2003), The Holiday (2006) and It's Complicated (2009) which have amassed $1,157 million worldwide.[42] Before she started her directorial career she wrote some other successful films like Private Benjamin (1980) for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, Baby Boom (1987) or Father of the Bride (1991).

Sofia Coppola is a critically acclaimed director who has also had financial success. Her award-winning film Lost in Translation (2003) grossed over $119 million. The Virgin Suicides (1999), Marie Antoinette (2006) and The Bling Ring (2013) were also successful. Her father is Francis Ford Coppola. Her brother Roman Coppola and niece Gia Coppola are also notable filmmakers.

Ava DuVernay is the director of the critically acclaimed Selma (2014) as well as the first African American woman to direct a triple-digit-budgeted film, A Wrinkle in Time (2018).

A study done by USC Annenberg researched what it meant to be a female in the film industry, no matter if they were working behind the scenes or were fictional characters. USC Annenberg looked at two test groups for films, the top 100 films every year from 2007 to 2015 and the top 100 films in 2015.

For the top 100 films in 2015, women were leads and co-leads in 32 of them, while of the 32 films, only 3 of them included a race other than Caucasian. Out of the thousands of speaking roles, only 32 characters were LGBT and of those characters, 40% of them were racially diverse. Female characters were also three times more likely to be seen in a sexual context.[43]

Behind the scenes had similar statistics to the female fictional characters. Female directors, writers, and producers made up 19% of the 1,365 people that it took to create the top 100 films in 2015. The percentage of female writers (11.8%) and producers (22%) can be seen as high compared to female directors (7.5%). Of the 7.5% of female directors, three of them were African American and one was Asian.[43]

For the top 100 films every year from 2007 until 2015, of the 800 films, 4.1% were directed by females.[43]

While there is still a gap between the percent of female and male filmmakers, women tend to be more involved in documentary films. There is a higher percentage of women directing documentaries than women directing narrative films.[44] There came a point where female directors were barely noticed or not recognized at all.

In the film world, many female filmmakers are not given much attention or chances to show what they are capable of. This issue is still being debated on, but several activists aim to change and overcome this type of inequality. These activists aim to raise awareness and produce a social change to what is currently shown in the media. During the 1990s, many films came about presenting female filmmakers from different nationalities and racial groups.[45] For example, one of the films released that year is called Sisters in Cinema[46] directed by Yvonne Welbon. This documentary was to demonstrate how African American female directors inspect their present spot in the business. By giving these female film directors the opportunity to showcase their work and demonstrate their actions then feminist documentaries will be as equally important to any other documentary. Not only this, but many documentaries tend to showcase different social activists who aim for a social change by raising awareness and reinforcing female film directors.

The Center of the Study of Women in Television and Film has dedicated 18 years to the study of women in the film industry. An annual report is created, discussing how women have contributed to as filmmakers. Most of the findings from the research shows that, statistically, it says the same from year to year.[47] The highest earning movies of the past 20 years, with the exception of foreign films and reissues, have been monitored and studied by the Celluloid Ceiling to provide information on the contributions and employment of women on these films.[48] According to the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University, as of 2017, “women comprised 18% of all directors, writers, producers, executive producers, editors, and cinematographers working on the top 250 domestic grossing films."[48] The same study concluded that in 2017, 10 or more women were given one of these positions in 1% of films, compared to 10 or more men being hired for these jobs in 70% of films.[48] Information from the Celluloid Ceiling shows that more women tend to be employed on film projects directed by women.[48] According to the Duke Journal of Gender Law and Policy, "in films with at least one female director, women comprised 53% of writers. Conversely, in films with male directors, women comprised just 10% of writers."[49] Statistically, female directors generally create films about and for women, and hire women to assume the roles of main characters or protagonists.[49] The Duke Journal of Gender Law and Policy additionally found that "in 2015, women comprised only 22% of protagonists and 18% of antagonists. Just 34% of major characters and 33% of all speaking characters in the top 100 domestic grossing films were women." [49]

The group also contributes their time to creating articles discussing how women are viewed in film, not only as filmmakers but as fictional characters as well.[47]

The Indian film industry has been an ongoing success since the revolutionary start of their musicals and romantic family dramas. Majority of these popular “Masala” films are usually directed by men.[55] Female roles in the filmmaking industry were solely restricted to acting, singing and dancing. However, recently women have stepped up and took the lead as successful directors, producing films mainly revolving around female issues within society.[55] Like majority of women around the world, Women in India have been struggling to prove their point.[55] Films made by women were usually categorized as art films or films of the parallel cinema. Indian women filmmakers could not have full access to funds and film publicity like male filmmakers did.[55] Mainstream cinema in India basically consists of the “Masala Movies”, which includes several genres such as comedy, action, revenge, tragedy, romance combined together to create an entire film.[55] Women continuously face struggles with attempting to get a fraction of the millions of dollars spend of these masala films.[55] This forces women to drift away from the masala genre in order to get some recognition, which can often cause controversies and raises suspicion.[55]

A number of well-known Indian female filmmakers have achieved astounding commercial success from their films, including Mira Nair, Aparna Sen, Deepa Mehta, Gurinder Chadha, and Manju Borah. However, there are a number of other Indian women filmmakers who have made some remarkable films that go beyond just entertainment; they take advantage of their platform to address a range of social and political issues.[56] Other noteworthy Indian women filmmakers include Vijaya Nirmala, Nisha Ganatra, Sonali Gulati, Indu Krishnan, Eisha Marjara, Pratibha PJaaparmar, Nandini Sikand, Ish Amitoj Kaur, Harpreet Kaur, Leena Manimekalai and Shashwati Talukdar, Rima Das.

Deepa Mehta

Deepa Mehta is known as a transnational filmmaker whose work in film is recognized internationally at the highest levels. Her emotionally moving, award-winning films have been played at almost every major film festival across the globe, and rank as favorites amongst many.[57] She produced the film Heaven on Earth, in 2008, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. Since its release, the film has turned into a useful tool for professionals who specialize in assisting abused women, specifically looking at the circumstances of immigrant women in abusive environments, as it has been screened at conferences of crown attorneys, judges and healthcare workers in order to help them better understand these women's situations.[56] Fire (1997) is a story of two sisters in law who go against their traditions and culture aiming to begin a new life together.[55] When the movie was first screened in Bombay, it caused a backlash by a few political parties such as the Shiv Sena.[55] Majority of the theaters stopped screening the film because of the violent mob attacks which caused serious damage to the theatre hall and property.[55] The attackers did not want the film to be screened because it went against their beliefs and was a violation to “Indian culture”.[55] The Indian society is still not equipped to understand and accept gay and lesbian relationships into their community. On the other hand, there are some who praised Mehta's film for showcasing social issues India was facing.

Some of her other well-known works include her elemental trilogy: Earth (1996), Fire (1998), Water (2005), where dominant masculine values and practices of oppression and exploitation of women are challenged in this compelling three part series.[58] Mehta's film Earth (1998) was inspired from Bapsi Sidhwa’s “Cracking India”, which was a story revolving the India-Pakistan Partition of 1947 and had a successful outcome.[55] Mehta began working on her last film, Water (2005), in her trilogy. The movie was set in the 1930s when India was fighting for independence against the British colonial rule.[55] The film portrays a group of widows who struggle with poverty in the city of Varanasi.[55] It also looks at the dynamic between one of the widows, who aims to be free from the social restrictions forced upon widows and a man who is from a lower social class and is a follower of Mahatma Gandhi.[55] Feminist social issues are highlighted, such as the mistreatment of widows, religious misogyny, and child brides in rural parts of India.[56] Mehta was forced to stop the film production because of the political party of Hindu extremists in relation to Bharatiya Janatha Party (BJP), responded by stating that the film tarnishes India's image and was associated in organizing attempt by the Christian church to revolt against Hinduism.[55] She received an Oscar Nomination for Water in 2007.[59] Other notable films of hers are Bollywood/Hollywood (2002), and the adaptation of Midnight's Children (2012).[57]

Mira Nair, a talented and accomplished Indian filmmaker, has written, produced and directed a plethora of award-winning documentaries. Her unique ability to provoke both western and non-western viewers in a variety of ways has led her to be seen as a non-traditional filmmaker who is not afraid of creating controversy through her work.[60] So Far From India (1983) depicted the story of a young, working Indian immigrant in New York City and his harrowing experience of acculturation. While dealing with his own new struggles in America, he also has to worry about his pregnant wife back home.[60] India Cabaret (1986), is a documentary-style film that lent a voice to strippers or cabaret dancers in Mumbai.[60] Beyond these impressive works, she also has a list of feature films under her belt; her debut feature film, Salaam Bombay! (1988), which detailed the urban devastation created by prostitution and poverty, was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1988, won the Prix du Publique for most popular entry at the Cannes Film Festival, the Camera D'Or for best first feature, as well as 25 other international awards.[61]

Haifa Al-Mansour

Majority of female filmmakers in India try to change the film industry by bringing in real social issues, instead of the mainstream masala movies that India has been known for.[55] Daman (2001) is directed by Lajma who decided to take on a unique yet distinct theme by raising awareness about marital rape.[55] The leading actress won an award for her outstanding raw performance that revived Indian films that try to raise awareness regarding a serious social issue.[55]

Haifa Al-Mansour is the first Saudi female filmmaker and is considered to be Saudi's most controversial film creator, especially after her iconic film that created a buzz, Wadjda.[62] She completed her undergraduate studies in the American University in Cairo then continued to pursue her master's degree in film production from the University of Sydney in Australia.[62] One of her three successful short films, Women Without Shadows, inspired hundreds of uprising Saudi filmmakers as well as raising questions towards the issue of publicly opening cinemas in Saudi.[62] Her films have been both celebrated and criticized due to the fact that her work brings serious social topics Saudis are struggling with regarding their conservative culture and traditions.[63]

In Wadjda, the main character, Waad Mohammed decides to go against social norms imposed on a ten-year-old girl in the kingdom. She becomes an outcast because of the bicycle she rides in public.[63] However, the film ends on a light and inspiring note that frees Wadjda from all the social constraints set upon her. Haifa al Mansour reflects a portion of the Saudi society that refuses to accept the submissive traditional way of living.[63] However, Wadjda promotes an amount of freedom for female rights that need more than an overnight change in such a conservative and restricted culture.[63]

In Japan for a long time Kinuyo Tanaka was the only woman to make feature films. She was able to do this against fierce resistance because she enjoyed a status as star actress. Using genre conventions, she showed women "with a humorous affection rare in Japanese cinema of the period" (Philip Kemp).

Currently, the best-known women filmmaker of Japan may be Naomi Kawase; 2007 she won the Grand Prix in Cannes, while Memoirs of a Fig Tree, the directorial debut of well-known actress Kaori Momoi, saw the light of the day in 2006. The sociocritical adventure film K-20: Legend of the Mask by Shimako Sato's was Sa breakthrough into a bigger budget; it starred Takeshi Kaneshiro and was released all over the world.

Similarly in South Korea, Yim Soon-rye landed a box-office-hit with Forever the Moment, while So Yong Kim got some attention for her film In Between Days and Lee Suk-Gyung made the women-themed and subtly feminist The Day After.

One of the important fifth-generation filmmakers of China is Ning Ying, who won several prizes for her films; in contrast to the controversy over some of her sixth-generation colleagues such as Zhang Yimou, who got accused of having sold out their ideals, Ning Ying has gone on to realize small independent films with themes strongly linked to Chinese daily life, therefore also being a link between the 5th and 6th generation. The Sixth Generation has seen a growing number of women filmmakers such as Liu Jiayin, best known for her film Oxhide, and Xiaolu Guo; in 2001 Li Yu caused quite a stir with her lesbian love story Fish and Elephant.

The most famous women filmmaker from Hong Kong is undoubtedly Ann Hui, who has made a wide array of films ranging from the wuxia genre to drama; Ivy Ho and Taiwanese Sylvia Chang also are known names in the Hong Kong industry, while in Taiwan queer filmmaker Zero Chou has gotten acclaim on festivals around the world.

Lindan Hu has documented the post-Mao re-emergence of female desire in women's cinema of the 1980s in mainland China. The films Hu considers are Army Nurse directed by Hu Mei and Women on the Long March directed by Liu Miaomiao.[64]

Yasmin Ahmad (1958–2009) is considered one of the most important directors of Malaysia; originally a commercial director, she switched to feature films relatively late and gained international acclaim while also stirring controversy among conservatives in her home country.

In Pakistan, where the film industry is not very big, some prominent and brilliant directors are working. Conventional film industry has directors like Sangeeta and Shamim Ara who are making films with feminist themes. Especially to Sangeeta's credit there are some issue-based films. Now some new directors from television industry are also coming towards the medium of films. Sabiha Sumar and Mehreen Jabbar are two new names for films in Pakistan and are making brilliant films. Both of these directors have made films which are not only issue based addressing national issues but also these films have won international awards at different film festivals.

Rakhshan Bani-Etemad, a writer and a director, is probably Iran's best known and certainly most prolific female filmmaker. She has established herself as the elder stateswoman of Iranian cinema with documentaries and films dealing with social pathology. Contemporary Iranian poet Forugh Farrokhzad (1935—1967) was also a filmmaker. Her best-known film is The House is Black (Khane siah ast, 1962), a documentary of a leper colony in the north of Iran. Samira Makhmalbaf directed her first film The Apple when she was only 17 years old and won Cannes Jury Prize in 2000 for her following film The Blackboard. Her stepmother Marzieh Meshkini made "The Day I Became a Woman" and Samira's sister Hana Makhmalbaf started her career with "The Joy of Madness", a behind-the-scenes documentary about Samira's film "At Five in the Afternoon", and has subsequently made two features, Buddha Collapsed out of Shame and "Green Days", a film about the Green Revolution that was banned in Iran.

Sumitra Peries is a veteran film director in Sri Lankan cinema and she is the wife of great Lester James Peries. She also held the post of Sri Lanka's ambassador to France, Spain and the United Nations in the late 1990s.

Inoka Sathyangani is an internationally acclaimed Sri Lankan film director and producer. In the year 2002, she received many number awards for her maiden effort Sulang Kirilli, which deals with the theme of abortion. The film secured the highest number of awards won by a single film in the history of Sri Lanka's film industry.

Marta Rodriguez is a Colombian documentary film maker who was active in the 1970s and 1980s.

Though women played a "minimal" role in the development of cinema in Argentina, two pioneering women were the director María Luisa Bemberg and the producer Lita Stantic.[65] Lucrecia Martel is a major figure of the Argentinean "buena onda", the post-economic crash new cinema. Lucia Puenzo is the other prominent contemporary Argentinean director. Each of them has made three features to date (2014). In addition, María Victoria Menis has written and directed several critically acclaimed films, including La cámara oscura (2008) and María y el araña (2013).

Brazilian Cinema has a number of women directors whose works date from the 1930s. Brazilian women directors' most prolific era unfolds from the 1970s. Some contemporary names include: Ana Carolina, Betse De Paula, Carla Camurati, Eliane Caffé, Helena Solberg, Lúcia Murat, Sandra Kogut, Suzana Amaral, Anna Muylaert, Petra Costa and Tata Amaral.

Mariana Chenillo became the first female director to win an Ariel Award for Best Picture back in 2010.

Women filmmakers in Latin America, specifically Mexico suffer from absolute neglect by the film industry and audience.[66] Mimí Derba founded one of the first Mexican production companies, Azteca Films. She had a successful career in vaudeville before entering films. Derba was the first female director in Mexico. Then Matilde Landeta was a Mexican filmmaker and screenwriter, who was the first female to serve in those roles during the Golden Age of Mexican cinema. Her films focused on the portrayal of strong, realistic female protagonists in a patriarchal world. Landeta won an Ariel Award in 1957 for Best Original Story for the film El camino de la vida which she co-wrote with her brother Eduardo. The film also won the 1957 Golden Ariel, the Silver Ariel Film of Major National Interest and Best Direction and two other awards in 1956 in the Berlin International Film Festival under the name of Alfonso Corona Blake.[67] In the 1980s and 1990s things started to take a turn. Women filmmakers in Mexico finally got the opportunity to create and produce professional feature films.[66] The most popular two would be El secreto de Romeila (1988) directed by Busi Cortés and Los pasos de Ana (1990) by Marisa Sistach.[66] These two feature films were considered the doors that opened opportunity for women filmmakers in Mexico as well as created a new genre that people were not familiar with, labeled as ‘women’s cinema’.[66] The phenomenal growth of ‘women’s cinema’, not only meant that there would be an infinite expansion in the list of female names as filmmakers or creators; in reality, it created a daunting cinematic genre by objectifying women as well as displacing them within the film industry.[66]

Arcelia Ramírez actress best known for Verónica (2017), Instructions Not Included (2013) and Such Is Life (2000).

Most of the female filmmakers in Mexico recognize as feminists. The primary reason for many of them to commit to being filmmakers was to depict stories of women in their original and true essence as well as to strive in readapting roles of females on the Mexican screen.[66] According to Patricia Torres San Martín, an honorable film scholar, there is a new theme emerging within the film industry in Mexico which is known as the ‘new female identity’.[66] This new structural change in cinema created a geographical cultural change in Mexico due to its new emerged eye-opening concept in the film industry.[66] One of Maria Novaro first short films (a school work: An Island Surrounded by Water, 1984) was acquired by the Museum of Modern Art in New York for its permanent film collection and was distributed in the United States by Women Make Movies. Maria's 1994 El Jardín del Edén (The Garden of Eden) obtain her a second nomination for the Ariel Award for Best Picture the first for a woman in Mexico. In the Garden of Eden, three very different women find themselves in the Mexican-American border town of Tijuana, each with her own goal. The women: struggling artist Elizabeth (Rosario Sagrav), Jane (Renée Coleman), who's looking for her brother, and Serena (Gabriela Roel), a widow who just arrived in town with her family in tow. Although the trio come from different cultural backgrounds—Serena is Mexican, Jane is American and Elizabeth is Mexican-American—all three are similarly in search of a new direction.

Mariana Chenillo became the first female director to win an Ariel Award for Best Picture back in 2010 for the film Nora's Will. The Ariel is the Mexican Academy of Film Award. In cinema, it is considered Mexico's equivalent to the Academy Awards ("Oscars") of the United States. The film's plot revolves around a mysterious photograph left under a bed which leads to an unexpected outcome. Issa López wrote the scripts for several film features, three of them produced in Mexico by the Major Hollywood Studios, and two of those directed by herself; Efectos Secundarios (Warner Bros., 2006) and Casi Divas Almost Divas (Sony Pictures, 2008). Casi Divas is the only Mexican movie to be scored by acclaimed Hollywood composer Hans Zimmer.

Chantal Akerman was a notable Belgian director. Her best-known film is Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975) about a housewife who earns a living as a prostitute. It premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. The film garnered a cult following in the following decades. Chantal Akerman had a long career as a filmmaker from the year 1968 to 2015, lasting almost 50 years.

Binka Zhelyazkova was the first Bulgarian woman to direct a feature film with Life Flows Quietly By... in 1957 and was one of the few women worldwide to direct feature films in the 1950s.

Irina Aktasheva, a Russian, made several Bulgarian films during the 1960s and 1970s, including Monday Morning in 1965.[68] Radka Bachvarova was a Bulgarian director of animation.[69] Lada Boyadjieva had two films compete for the Short Film Palme d'Or in 1961 and 1962. Ivanka Grybcheva made films in the 1970s and 1980s.

Olga Rautenkranzová is the first woman director from Czechoslovakia. In 1918 she directed Kozlonoh and Ucitel orientálních jazyku. Little has been published about her life and career.

Thea Červenková is the second Czechoslovak woman film director. In 1919 she directed Monarchistické spiknutí, Náměsíčný, Byl první máj and Zloděj. She was also screenwriter, writer, documentary maker, film actress, film journalist and critic, producer, film company owner and founding partner.

Věra Chytilová was an avant-garde Czech film director and pioneer of Czech New Wave cinema. Banned by the Czechoslovak government in the 1960s, she is best known for her film Daisies (1966).

The first Danish feature film to be directed by a woman was Ud i den kolde sne from 1934, directed by Alice O'Fredericks, who would go on to be one of the most prolific Danish film directors. She initially co-directed her films with Lau Lauritzen Jr., however in the 1940s she started directing films on her own. She is credited with directing more than 70 feature films as well as writing screenplays for more than 30 films making her one is one of the most productive directors in Danish cinema and among her most memorable films are the Far til Fire-films and the filmatization of the Morten Korch novels, which were all very popular during the Golden Age of Danish Cinema. She is also noted for her films focusing on women and women's rights.

In the 1940s the star actress Bodil Ipsen and the screenwriter Grete Frische joined O'Fredericks in directing mainstream feature films. Ipsen would towards the end of her career co-direct with Lau Lauritsen Jr. and Fische would co-direct Så mødes vi hos Tove with O'Fredericks.

Other prolific Danish directors include Astrid Henning-Jensen, who became the first female director to be nominated for an Academy Award with Paw, Susanne Bier, the first female director to win a Golden Globe, an Academy Award, an Emmy Award and a European Film Award, and Lone Scherfig, whose films have been nominated for Academy Awards, BAFTAs and a European Film Award.

The oldest Danish film award is named Bodil Award after Bodil Ipsen and Bodil Kjer, and the Alice Award, which is award to the best female director at the Copenhagen International Film Festival is named in honor of Alice O'Fredericks.

Glory Leppänen was the very first Finnish woman to direct a film. 1936 feature film Onnenpotku by Leppännen starred Miss Finland Ester Toivonen. As of February 2020, it retains the record for the most cinema-goers of any film by a Finnish female director.[70]

Ansa Ikonen, Kyllikki Forssell and Ritva Arvelo are also among the first four Finnish women film directors.[71]

Regarding notable 21st century films, many new talents are to be found. Experimental feature film about film actress Marilyn Monroe, titled M (2018), by director Anna Eriksson was screened at the Venice International Film Festival. Hanna Bergholm's body horror film Hatching and coming-of-age film Girl Picture by Alli Haapasalo both premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. Apocalyptic drama Quarantine (2021) by Finnish film director Diana Ringo was a 2022 Golden Globes Entry from Finland and Russia.

In the silent era French women directors were prominent Alice Guy-Blaché directed around 700 films and is credited with introducing the narrative form with her film La Fée aux Choux (1896). Germaine Dulac was one of the most creative art film directors and went on to be the leader of the French cinéclub movement. Marie-Louise Iribe developed from being an actor into owing a production company and directing significant feature films.

Agnes Varda

During the "golden age" of "Classical" French cinema Jacqueline Audry was the only woman to direct commercial films. In 1959 writer Marguerite Duras wrote the script for Alain Resnais' Hiroshima Mon Amour. She turned to directing with La Musica in 1966. Among the best known French women film makers are Agnès Varda, Claire Denis, Julia Ducournau, Diane Kurys, Danièle Huillet, Nelly Kaplan and Catherine Breillat. The work of many more French female directors is rarely screened outside France. Others include Zabou Breitman, Julie Delpy, Virginie Despentes, Valérie Donzelli, Pascale Ferran, Alice Guy-Blaché, Maïwenn (Le Besco), Mia Hansen-Løve, Mati Diop, Agnès Jaoui, Isild le Besco, Noémie Lvovsky, Tonie Marshall, Christelle Raynal, Céline Sciamma, Coline Serreau, and Danièle Thompson.

France is the birthplace of cinema that contributed both the artistic expression and the technical film-production process itself. There are three pioneering female filmmakers who left of their heritage and recorded their history in the beginning, middle, and the end. Female director, Alice Guy was existent during the birth of cinema.[72] Germain Dulac was around Avant-Garde cinema during the 1920s.[72] Lastly, Agnés Varda (1954) came along the movement of the New Wave.[72] All three filmmakers came in power along the same routes. Alice Guy was a secretary to Leon Gaumont before the making of her very own first film, which was a year later after the birth of cinema, 1854 to be exact.[72] On the other hand, Germain Dulac had studied music first then became a film logician and a journalist. She focused closely on still photography just before the making of her very own first film in the year 1926.[72] While, Agnés Varda had an intense interest in art history at first, she later turned towards film and photography in 1954.[72]

Since Alice Guy was working for Gaumont, she was responsible in the production side of the company for being the director, the filmmaker, and set manger. From being a secretary to a  head she had created 406 films during this period of time.[72] Most of her films were between 20 and 90 minutes, for a film to be created for this long during this time would be considered to be a short film, but knowing the fact that it was made earlier before is exceptional during the early years.[72] Alice Guy had the chance to shoot some of her films in a different way than Gaumont's forerunner the Lumiere Brothers. The brothers were mostly interested in shooting films of showing what the cameras can capture and not what they express.[72] For example, having shots of trains or the military marching repeatedly. Guy was not so interested in repetitiveness in films, although she was slightly influenced by them, she had decided to think of something better and comedic.[72] Here she gave in a bunch of short comedic films to Gaumont and approved of her films.[72] This was the first step for being a pioneer. It had let her experience the futuristic side of cinema.[72] Within a year of her submission of short films, they have become a complete success. Her film of La Passion or so called La Vie du Christ was a work of art in which she has worked on for years. This has included twenty-five sets along with a number if exterior areas and  around or over three hundred crowd scenes.[72]

At the time where Germain Dulac was shooting to make her first film in 1916, the film industry in France was in an unusual state because of the early booming that has happened in 1901–04.[72] During 1910, around sixty to seventy percent of films were sent out worldwide from Paris, however, during 1914 the industry started to decline these films because it lacked investment and production tools for practices.[72] Later on over the years in 1920, the new cinema in France began because of avant-garde filmmaking and the first movement of film theory, in which Dulac was interested in.[72] Dulac started off as a journalist for feminism journals that are called La Fraciase and La Fronde, in which she later on combined it with her interest in still photography that has made her think and make connections between the camera lens and feminism.[72] She had a strong belief towards cinema, she knew that cinema can demonstrate so much significance through a lens. Using cinematography was one way of expressing rhythmic structures and meanings in film. She was highly influenced by music in her early life, in which she incorporated in films to visually see the movement of music.[72] She had made her films sound poetic to show and express emotion and even had the thought to represent females from her inspiration of being a feminist journalist.[72] Dulac's work had made her establish the idea of cinema writing to be able to mark female subjectivity.[72] She was also very inspired by Guy and took one of her techniques of motion photography and gave it a voice of females.[72] One of the films she is famous for is called La Souriante Madame Beudet (The Smiling Madame Beudet) created in 1923. This film is established to be one of the best feminist films out there. It revolves around the idea of having a hard-working female in an unwanted relationship.[72]

Agnes Varda's work focuses on relating her films to life, she makes her fictional and non-fictional facts shown through film. She shows the life of a person internally and outside the world to be able to prove the reality of life.[72] Varda structured one of her films by having side to side narrations, meaning having two narrations at once.[72] The first structural attribute she used to film was objectivity, which was showing detachment from the actual story.[72] Without objectivity there would be subjectivity in her films, which would later make the objectivity look arranged and unrealistic. Some of her films do not show depth because she herself is detached from the characters.[72] Most of the characters shown are not as central than any other characters in a film that the viewer will see, she dramatizes the narration already than it is dramatized. In her film, La Pointe Courte she decided to make it feel different to make the audience evaluate her film effectively.[72]

Luise Fleck was an Austrian film director, and considered the second ever female feature film director in the world, after Alice Guy-Blaché. Luise Fleck worked with her husband Jacob and they both shared director credits. In 1911 Luise Fleck directed Die Glückspuppe.

Austrian filmmaker Leontine Sagan is a notable director who worked in Germany.

Contemporary Austrian women directors include Barbara Albert and Jessica Hausner. Films by Hausner have been screened at the Cannes Film Festival.

Regarding experimental film, feminist artist and experimental filmmaker Valie Export is notable for her video art work made in the 1970s.

Lotte Reiniger was a German film director and the foremost pioneer of silhouette animation. Her best known films are The Adventures of Prince Achmed, from 1926, the first feature-length animated film, and Papageno (1935).

1931 film Girls in Uniform by Leontine Sagan is one of the earliest narrative films to explicitly portray homosexuality. The film is about a 14-year old girl who falls in love with her female teacher at an all-girls boarding school.

Actress and director Leni Riefenstahl is best known for making the infamous 1935 Nazi propaganda film Triumph of the Will which despite it's controversial nature is still considered as one of the greatest films of all time.

German woman filmmakers Helke Sander and Cristina Perincioli are also pioneers of the feminist movement[73] Other prominent female film-makers include Margarethe von Trotta and Helma Sanders-Brahms. Monika Treut has also won recognition for her depictions of queer and alternative sexuality. Contemporary German women directors of note include Maren Ade, Doris Dörrie, Frauke Finsterwalder, Katja von Garnier, Nicolette Krebitz, Caroline Link and Angela Schanelec.

Feminist German movies are helped and promoted by all kind of organisations; festivals, cinemas just for women (Frauenkino), newspaper "frauen und film", association of film makers... Those tended to be exclusively for women, arguing that they wanted to bring balance. Different objectives were pursued with those organisations : more attention, more discussion and claims like 50% of the grant allowed to film makers should be given to female directors.[74]

Anna Indermaur is the first woman film director from Switzerland. Indermaur opened the Nord-Süd cinema studio in 1935.

Ursula Meier is a notable modern Swiss film director. Her films have been screened at the Cannes Film Festival.

In Hungary film director and screenwriter Marta Meszaros has been making important films for decades, starting from 1968 until 2020. Her full-length directorial debut, Eltavozott nap/The Girl (1968), was the first Hungarian film to have been directed by a woman. Meszaros is best known for her 1984 Cannes Film Festival winning picture Diary for My Children.

Director Ildikó Enyedi is known for her 2017 film On Body and Soul which won the top prize at the 67th Berlin International Film Festival and went on to be nominated for a Foreign Language Academy Award. She has directed eight feature films since 1989.

Elvira Notari was a pioneer of Italian cinema, and she was followed by other prominent female directors as Lina Wertmüller and Liliana Cavani.

Elvira Notari is the first Italian woman director to make a film. She has directed more than sixty feature films and about 100 documentaries. Notari's first films are Maria Rosa di Santa Flavia, Carmela la pazza, Bufera d'anime, all made in 1911.

Lina Wertmüller is best known for her satiric films Swept Away (1974) and Seven Beauties (1975). With Seven Beauties Wertmüller became the first female director to be nominated for the Academy Award as Best Director.

Liliana Cavani is best known for her controversial film The Night Porter (1974). Set in Vienna in the 1957, the film centers on the sadomasochistic relationship between a former Nazi concentration camp officer and one of his inmates. The film starred Dirk Bogarde and Charlotte Rampling. In 2002 Cavani directed Ripley's Game starring John Malkovich, based on the novel of the same name by Patricia Highsmith.

Alice Rohrwacher is a notable modern film director from Italy whose films were screened at the Cannes Film Festival. Her best known film is Happy as Lazzaro (2018).

Female film directors in Norway did not draw much attention from their audience and therefore were being neglected. With this current generation, many Norwegian female directors had showed courageous development proving the importance of female filmmakers. Film directors Anja Breien, Vibeke Lokkeberg, and Laila Mikkelsen are considered to be the top female primary filmmakers that had showed great advancement in Norwegian films. Most documentaries showcase crucial critiques about discriminating females.

Wanda Jakubowska was a Polish film director best known for her work on the Holocaust. Her 1948 film The Last Stage was an early and influential depiction of concentration camps. It was filmed on location at Auschwitz, where Jakubowska had been interned. Jakubowska was active as a director for more than 50 years, starting from 1932 until 1988.

Agnieszka Holland is a notable modern film director. Her films have been screened at the Cannes Film Festival and the Berlin International Film Festival.

Portuguese editor and director Manuela Viegas' 1999 film Gloria, premiered in competition at the 57th Berlinale, is considered in her country the climax of a cinema of feminine sensibility. Other Portuguese female film directors include Teresa Villaverde, Catarina Ruivo, Raquel Freire, Margarida Gil, Cláudia Tomaz and Rita Azevedo Gomes. The current President of the Portuguese Directors Association is Margarida Gil.[75]

Russian cinematography has seen a number of women directors who created nationally and internationally acclaimed movies. The first Russian moving picture produced by a female director came out in 1910s. Olga Preobrazhenskaya was introduced into the fledgling film industry by Yakov Protazanov. In 1913 Olga Preobrazhenskaya began directing films in the "Timan and Reingardt" studio. Her first work as a director was a joint effort with actor, screenwriter and director Vladimir Gardin - in 1916, they filmed Miss Peasant based on the work of the same name by Pushkin. As Olga Preobrazhenskaya put it, "the film came out, it was praised, but since it was the first production of a woman director, it was treated with distrust, and on the posters and reviews my name was often written with a male ending or attributed to the production of other directors.” In the first years after the Revolution, Olga Preobrazhenskaya was also the first woman to teach directing: she taught classes at the State School of Cinematography (now VGIK). Preobrazhenskaya's most successful work is the drama Women of Ryazan (1927), which the writer Theodore Dreiser, who visited the USSR at the time, called a miracle. The film was about the difficult life of an ordinary Russian peasant woman in the countryside on the eve and after the revolution. Preobrazhenskaya created this picture together with the director Ivan Pravov, as many of her other films, designed in the spirit of socialist realism: And Quiet Flows the Don, Stepan Razin, The Lad from the Taiga.

Nadezhda Kosheverova was considered the greatest fairy tale director of the Soviet cinema. In spite of the fact that the director tried herself in different genres, from realistic (Galya) to comedies (Tamer of Tigers), it was in the fairy tale that her talent revealed itself most fully. The most famous of her ten works in this genre is Cinderella released in 1947, filmed together with Mikhail Shapiro on the script of Evgeny Schwartz. Cinderella was, perhaps, the first fairy tale in the history of the Soviet cinema, devoid of any ideological overtones, but at the same time reflecting with mild satire the features of the Soviet way of life. For example, in the stepmother, played by Faina Ranevskaya, one may easily recognize the exemplary communal activist. And also for the first time in the Soviet cinema aristocratic heroes - King Erast Garin and Prince Alexei Konsovsky - are not portrayed as caricatured negative characters.

Margarita Barskaya was the first director who succeeded in showing the world through the eyes of a child. In 1933, she released Tattered Shoes, the first sound film for children in the history of the world cinema. It told the story of children growing up in a conventional European country where the fascist regime came to power. After the film's release, Barskaya was immediately talked about as a new, original talent, and much later, almost as a forerunner of Italian neo-realism. Viewers were delighted by how casually children behaved in the frame, as if not noticing the lens - the merit of Barskaya-teacher, who developed her own system of working with young actors. Margarita Barskaya was the initiator of the world's first children's film studio "Soyuzdetfilm", where a full-length film "Father and Son" was shot. It never appeared on the screens: the critics branded the picture as "fake", because Barskaya, true to her style, reflected the life of a Soviet family without embellishment. The director was no longer allowed to shoot - mainly because of her friendship with the disgraced oppositionist Karl Radek, as a result, the film "Father and Son" was the last work of Barskaya.

Filmmaker Yulia Solntseva, before becoming a famous director, managed to attract attention as an actress thanks to her main roles in silent films Aelita and The Cigarette Girl from Mosselprom. The most famous work of Solntseva was Poem of the Sea, filmed in 1958 from a script by her husband, director Alexander Dovzhenko, in which the director presented the construction of the Kakhovka hydroelectric station in the style of an ancient Greek epic. Another notable work by Solntseva was the first wide-screen film in Europe, Chronicle of Flaming Years (1960), which won the award for best director at Cannes.

Iskra Babich, a 1958 graduate of VGIK, was a favorite student of director and teacher Ivan Pyryev. She had only four full-length films in her filmography – all four melodramas. Babich made penetrating films about love, conscience and kindness - but without excessive expression and eccentric plots. The director's most famous film is Muzhiki! (1982), which won many awards and achieved international recognition.

Dinara Asanova, a student of Mikhail Romm, is known as a director who accurately shows the conflicting nature of an adolescent. Two of her most famous films - a lyrical story about unrequited love Woodpecker without a headache (1975) and a drama about young hooligans Boys (1983), which featured amateur actors, real troubled teens. After the movie Asanova began to receive packs of letters: people were asking for advice, believing that the director was a qualified specialist in the education of "difficult children". However, Asanova's only task was to show that the transition period between adolescence and youth is not a rehearsal for "real", adult life, but an important part of our only, big, life.

Larisa Shepitko was one of the central figures of the Soviet cinema in the 1960s and '70s. One of her most acclaimed films, Wings, released in 1966, reflected on the fate of front-line soldiers. The war veteran in the film was a woman, a former aviator Nadezhda Petrukhina, who after the war became the director of a vocational school. The main character, forced to abandon the sky, had to live by the new rules, which did not have the moral clarity inherent in wartime, which eventually brought her to an existential dead end, like many in her generation. In order to shoot her main film, The Ascension (1976), Shepitko had to confront the authorities. The film became the first Soviet picture to win the "Golden Bear" at the Berlin International Film Festival.

Tatiana Lukashevich debuted as a film director at the age of 24: her film "Ivan Karavaev's Crime" was more like an artistically designed film propaganda than an artistic statement, but it still drew attention to the young director. Later Lukashevich made mostly films that contributed to the "moral education of the younger generation" ("Gavrosh", "The Foundling", "The Maturity Certificate"). Despite the director's strict adherence to the canons of socialist realism, such values as humanity and genuineness were always in the foreground in Lukashevich's films. This is most noticeable in the film The Foundling, whose main idea is expressed in the lines of a lullaby: "In our big city, everyone is kind to the baby.”

For Aida Manasarova, perhaps the most important thing in her work was the careful avoidance of everything too idealistic and far-fetched. According to Manasarova, it was "much more important for her to show the real drama of the search for moral ideals," so her characters were never one-dimensional and positive. Almost all of her films told about people experiencing a deep inner crisis. "I like heroes who are tormented by their imperfection," Manasarova admitted. One of the brightest works of the director is a family drama "Look away" (1983) about the difficult relationship between mother and son.

Seventeen Moments of Spring, one of the most famous and nationally acclaimed series known in the Soviet cinema, was also made by a female director Tatyana Lioznova. However, the director is known not only for the story of the popular Soviet spy. A key character in all her works was a man who finds himself in unnatural conditions, a white crow, who is tested for his resilience, and not always successfully. Nyura from the film Three Poplars in Plyushchikha in 1967 who never found love; Nina from Carnival (1981) who returned to her small town, not having achieved any success as a great actress; Lenya from the film We, below (1980) who failed at collecting the signatures he so badly needed. This combination of stubbornness and humility is characteristic of her films. As the playwright Alexander Gelman put it, "her films are sincere, the truth of the soul in them surpasses the truth of facts, as it happens in life with real people.”

Alla Surikova is notable for directing many successful comedy films. Her most popular film is the satiric Red-Western A Man from the Boulevard des Capucines.

Kira Muratova always made only films that she wanted to make, irrespective of changes of political agenda, regimes and aesthetic guidelines. This is why her first films - Brief Encounters (1967) and The Long Farewell (1971) were shelved; the third, Getting to Know the Big, Wide World (1979), was never shown in wide distribution, and the fourth, Among Grey Stones (1983), cut down by censorship, was released under the pseudonym of Ivan Sidorov. Finally, The Asthenic Syndrome (1989), released as Muratova wanted, brought her worldwide acclaim. Muratova has always made pictures that prove to be a test for the viewer, a difficult inner work. She is the only woman director who has safely survived decades of transformation of the national cinema.

There are many new and important names in the Russian female tradition of filmmaking in the 21-century, and the number is constantly increasing.

Svetlana Baskova gained nationwide notoriety for directing the exploitation shock-horror film The Green Elephant in 1999.

Renata Litvinova, initially famous as an actress in Kira Muratova's films, honed her directorial skills in Goddess: How I fell in Love (2004) and The Last Tale of Rita. Her latest notable work is the 2021 feature The North Wind. Litvinova usually also stars in her films.

One of the most popular modern women directors Anna Melikyan, is known as author of Sundance winner Mermaid (2007) and satiric romantic drama The Three (2020).

Director Avdotya Smirnova, initially known as a screenwriter, is the author of the films Two Days (2011), Story of One Appointment (2018) and biopic series Vertinskiy (2021) about the famous Russian singer.

Oksana Bychkova, is best known as director of the romantic drama Piter FM (2006).

Valeriya Gai Germanika, one of the most provocative names in the Russian film industry, initially only directed documentary films. She is well known for her Cannes Film Festival winning feature Everybody Dies but Me (2008). Her latest work, series Mutual Consent (2022) about a raped schoolteacher has been described by the authors as the first MeToo series from Russia.

Diana Ringo, is director of the dystopia film Quarantine (2021) starring Anatoly Bely. Quarantine is a philosophical and experimental art-house film about a man who lives in a bunker for 20 years. Diana Ringo is the director, producer, screenwriter, and composer of the film's score. Besides directing, Diana Ringo is also a professional musician and composer.

2021 film Gerda about a young striptease dancer by director Natalya Kudryashova premiered at the Locarno Film Festival where it received several awards. Kudryashova is also active as an actress.

Natalya Merkulova is well-known for her films co-directed with her husband, Aleksey Chupov. Her films The Man Who Surprised Everyone (2018) and Captain Volkonogov Escaped (2021) have been screened at the Venice International Film Festival.

Ana Mariscal was a pioneer among Spanish female filmmakers. She was also a prolific actress in the 1940s and 1950s. In the early 1950s she became a producer and shortly after started directing and writing her own films. Her best-known film is perhaps El camino (1963), an adaptation of the novel by Miguel Delibes. Other films include Segundo López, aventurero urbano (1953) inspired by Italian neorealism or Con la vida hicieron fuego (1959), about a former combatant of the Republican faction who tries to start a new life while battling the haunting memories of the Spanish Civil War.

Josefina Molina, also a novelist, started her career in the 1960s. She was the first woman who graduated from Spain's National Film School in 1967. Her prolific TV résumé includes the highly successful miniseries Teresa de Jesús (1984), a dramatization of Teresa of Avila's life. Her work on film includes Vera, un cuento cruel (1974), Función de noche (1981) or Esquilache (1989) which was entered into the 39th Berlin International Film Festival.

Pilar Miró was a celebrated director and screenwriter of film and TV whose notable works include Gary Cooper, Who Art in Heaven (1980), Prince of Shadows (1991) which won the Silver Bear for outstanding artistic contribution at the 42nd Berlin International Film Festival and El perro del hortelano (1996), an adaptation of a Lope de Vega play which won 7 Goya Awards including Best Picture and Best Director. She was also in charge of Spain's national broadcast television TVE from 1986 to 1989.

Icíar Bollaín made her acting debut as a teenager under Víctor Erice's direction in El sur (1983). She made the jump to directing and writing in 1995 with Hola, ¿estás sola? which earned her a nomination for a Goya Award for Best New Director. Her subsequent filmography includes Flores de otro mundo (1999) winner of the Grand Prix award at the International Critics' Week at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival, Te doy mis ojos (2003) which won her a Goya Award for Best Director and a nomination for a European Film Award for Best Director or Even the Rain (2010) which made the January shortlist for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

Isabel Coixet directed numerous television commercials during the 1990s. She usually films in English with international actors. Some of her best known films include My Life Without Me (2003), starring Sarah Polley, Mark Ruffalo, Scott Speedman and Deborah Harry, The Secret Life of Words (2005) once again starring Polley as well as Tim Robbins and Julie Christie, a segment on the omnibus film Paris, je t'aime (2006) and the Philip Roth adaptation Elegy (2008) starring Ben Kingsley, Penélope Cruz, Dennis Hopper and Patricia Clarkson.

Gracia Querejeta has won acclaim for her ensemble dramas By My Side Again (1999), Héctor (2004) and Seven Billiard Tables (2007). She has also directed documentaries and TV episodes.

Other notable filmmakers include María Ripoll (Tortilla Soup, The Man with Rain in His Shoes), Patricia Ferreira, Chus Gutiérrez, María Lidón aka Luna (Stranded: Náufragos, Moscow Zero), Rosa Vergés, Lydia Zimmermann and Laura Mañá.

Ebba Lindkvist is the first Swedish woman to direct a film. In 1910 she directed the short drama, Värmländingarna, which premièred in Sweden on 27 October 1910. Another Swedish film pioneer is Anna Hofman-Uddgren who directed Stockholmsfrestelser in 1911. Swedish actress Mai Zetterling directed a number of films in the 1960s and 1970s.

A notable recent film made by a female Swedish film director, Pleasure (2021) by Ninja Thyberg, was screened at Sundance Film Festival.

Joy Batchelor was an English animator, director, screenwriter, and producer. She married John Halas in 1940,[76] and subsequently co-established Halas and Batchelor cartoons, whose best known production is the animated feature film Animal Farm (1954), which made her the first woman director of an animated feature since Lotte Reiniger.

Muriel Box was an English screenwriter and director, directing her first film in 1941.[77]

In Britain Jane Arden (1927–82), following up her television drama The Logic Game (1965), wrote and starred in the film Separation (Jack Bond 1967), which explores a woman's mental landscape during a marital breakup. Arden went on to be the only British woman to gain a solo feature-directing credit for The Other Side of the Underneath (1972), a disturbing study of female madness shot mainly in South Wales. Arden's overtly feminist work was neglected and almost lost until the British Film Institute rediscovered and reissued her three features, and the short Vibration (1974), in 2009.

Andrea Arnold won a 2005 Academy Award for her short film Wasp, and has twice won the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, in 2006 for Red Road, and in 2009 for Fish Tank.

Two of Lynne Ramsay's early short films (Small Deaths and Gasman) won the Prix du Jury at the Cannes Film Festival, and her subsequent four feature films, Ratcatcher (1999), Morvern Callar (2002), We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011), and You Were Never Really Here (2017) have all screened at the Cannes Festival.

Georgina Willis made her debut at Cannes with the controversial feminist film Watermark. Watermark is about a woman who faces mental health issues and ends up killing her own child.

Mamma Mia! directed by Phyllida Lloyd became the #5 highest-grossing film of 2008[78] and the highest-grossing film ever in the United Kingdom.[79] Lloyd's next film, the Margaret Thatcher biopic The Iron Lady (2012) grossed $114 million worldwide.[80] Debbie Isitt has directed successful mainstream films, including "Confetti" and the "Nativity!" trilogy.

Cinenova is a London-based organization that distributes women produced films.

Sally Potter is a prominent British feminist film maker who made her breakthrough as director of Tilda Swinton starrer Orlando. Other notable films by Potter include The Party (2017), The Man Who Cried (2000) and Ginger & Rosa (2012).

British filmmakers Ngozi Onwurah and Pratibha Parmar explore the legacies of colonialism. Film director Gurinder Chadha primarily makes films about women of Indian origin living in England.

Work by British film director and writer Shamim Sarif often draws upon her own personal experience with cross cultural, non-heterosexual love. Some of her notable films include lesbian romantic drama I Can't Think Straight (2008) and Cold War espionage film Despite the Falling Snow (2016) starring Rebecca Ferguson.

Partially as a result of funding from the UK Film Council (disbanded in 2010), a new generation of British female filmmakers has emerged in the 21st-century, including Penny Woolcock, Carol Morley, Joanna Hogg, Clio Barnard, Sally El Hosaini, Amma Asante, and Tina Gharavi. Gallery artists Gillian Wearing and Sam Taylor-Wood have both moved into feature cinema, with Taylor-Wood (now Taylor-Johnson) named as director of the adaptation of Fifty Shades of Grey.[81]

Pietra Brettkelly is a female filmmaker born in New Zealand. She is known for her documentaries. She has made five documentaries so far, Yellow is Forbidden, A Flickering Truth, Māori Boy Genius, The Art Star and the Sudanese Twins, and Beauty Will Save the World.

Jane Campion is the most famous woman director from New Zealand. For her film The Piano she received the Palme d'Or at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival. In 2022 she received the Academy Award as Best Director for the film The Power of the Dog.

Gothic films incorporate Gothic elements and can be infused within different genres such as horror, romance, science fiction, and comedy. Australian Gothic films have been an accordant genera ever since the 1970s.[82] Gothic Australian films means to make films that are diverse and use camera techniques in different ways to question what the audience may perceive. One of the Australian Gothic films created by female filmmakers: Suzan Dermody and Elizabeth Jacka called The Screening of Australia (1987), shows different stylistic thematic terms and was the most successful at showing what is called the ocker. The ocker is a term to describe an Australian savage man.[82] Other than this, there is a strong relationship between Australian Gothic films and Gothic literature. The characters and the actions that happen in a Gothic novel is created into a Gothic film. Most Gothic novels during the 1970s referred to female characters and their Australian cultural values. Although the film Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975) was directed by a male filmmaker, it was written by a female storyteller Joan Lindsay. Lindsay decided to make this film culturally related to Australian societal issues of day-to-day lives.[82] Her film included Gothic materials and gave a twist of horror that later the director will showcase through the mise-en-scene and cinematography. The use of Gothic materials were offered by the filmmakers Dermody and Jacka to other Australian Gothic films that have opened up to a more thematic analysis. Other Gothic films were made to broaden Australian characteristics and features, a film called Smoke Em If You Got ‘Em (1988) produced by Jennifer Hooks showcased the protagonist in a super natural horrific way, but also added a comedic twist to not lose its characterization of film style.[82]

• 1896 La fée aux choux; director: Alice Guy-Blaché; one of the first narrative (fiction) films
• 1911 Bufera d'anime; director: Elvira Notari
• 1912 Algie the Miner; director: Alice Guy-Blaché(uncredited) first western directed by a woman.
• 1914 The Merchant of Venice; director: Lois Weber; the first full-length feature film directed by a woman
• 1915 The Hypocrites; director: Lois Weber
• 1916 Miss Peasant; director: Olga Preobrazhenskaya
• 1916 Shoes; director: Lois Weber
• 1921 The Blot; director: Lois Weber
• 1921 The Love Light; director: Frances Marion, starring Mary Pickford
• 1922 La souriante Madame Beudet (The Smiling Madame Beudet); director: Germaine Dulac; often cited as one of the first feminist feature films
• 1923 The Song of Love; director: Frances Marion, starring Norma Talmadge
• 1926 The Adventures of Prince Achmed; director: Lotte Reiniger
• 1927 Laila ; director: Aziza Amir
• 1927 The Fall of the Romanov Dynasty; director: Esfir Shub
• 1928 The Seashell and the Clergyman; director: Germaine Dulac
• 1929 The Wild Party; director: Dorothy Arzner
• 1930 Sarah and Son; director: Dorothy Arzner
• 1030 Anybody's Woman; director: Dorothy Arzner
• 1931 Mädchen in Uniform (Girls in uniform); director: Leontine Sagan
• 1932 Merrily We Go to Hell; director: Dorothy Arzner, a Hollywood studio feature film starring Sylvia Sidney
• 1933 Christopher Strong; director: Dorothy Arzner, a Hollywood studio feature film starring Katharine Hepburn
• 1931 Honor Among Lovers; director: Dorothy Arzner
• 1931 Working Girls; director: Dorothy Arzner
• 1934 Nana; director: Dorothy Arzner
• 1935 Robin Hood (animated film); director: Joy Batchelor
• 1935 Triumph des Willens (Triumph of the Will); director: Leni Riefenstahl
• 1936 Craig's Wife; director: Dorothy Arzner
• 1937 The Bride Wore Red; director: Dorothy Arzner, a Hollywood studio feature film starring Joan Crawford
• 1938 Olympia (1938 film); director: Leni Riefenstahl
• 1940 Dance, Girl, Dance; director: Dorothy Arzner
• 1943 Meshes of the Afternoon (experimental film); director: Maya Deren; selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Film Registry
• 1943 First Comes Courage; director: Dorothy Arzner
• 1944 At Land; director: Maya Deren
• 1946 Ritual in Transfigured Time; director: Maya Deren
• 1949 The Lost People; director: Muriel Box
• 1949 Not Wanted; director: Ida Lupino
• 1949 Never Fear; director: Ida Lupino
• 1949 Gigi; director: Jacqueline Audry.

• 1950 Outrage; director: Ida Lupino, the first Hollywood studio feature directed by a woman after Dorothy Arzner's films; the story of a rape
• 1951 Hard, Fast and Beautiful; director: Ida Lupino
• 1951 Olivia; director: Jacqueline Audry
• 1951 Streetwalker; director: Matilde Landeta
• 1952 The Happy Family; director: Muriel Box
• 1953 Street Corner; director Muriel Box
• 1953 The Hitch-Hiker; director: Ida Lupino, the first film noir directed by a woman; selected for preservation in the National Film Registry
• 1953 The Bigamist; director: Ida Lupino
• 1954 Animal Farm; co-director: Joy Batchelor
• 1955 La Pointe Courte; director: Agnès Varda
• 1955 The Eternal Breasts; director: Kinuyo Tanaka
• 1957 Life Flows Quietly By...; director: Binka Zhelyazkova
• 1959 Bridges Go-Round; director: Shirley Clarke
• 1961 The Connection; director Shirley Clarke
• 1961 Cléo de 5 à 7 (Cleo from 5 to 7); director: Agnès Varda
• 1962 Les Petits Matins; director: Jacqueline Audry
• 1963 The House is Black; director: Forough Farrokhzad
• 1963 El Camino; director: Ana Mariscal
• 1964 The Cool World; director: Shirley Clarke; the cruel reality of street life in the U.S.
• 1964 Älskande par (Loving Couples); director: Mai Zetterling
• 1965 Le Bonheur; director: Agnes Varda
• 1965 The East is Red; director: Wang Ping
• 1966 Sedmikrasky (Daisies); director: Věra Chytilová – the story of two young girls who explore the world without taking it too seriously
• 1966 Blood Bath; director: Stephanie Rothman
• 1966 Wings; director: Larissa Shepitko
• 1967 Brief Encounters; director: Kira Muratova
• 1967 Portrait of Jason; director Shirley Clarke
• 1967 Separation; writer and leading actor Jane Arden
• 1968 Rat Life and Diet in North America; director: Joyce Wieland
• 1969 La fiancée du pirate (A very curious girl); director: Nelly Kaplan

• 1970 Wanda; director: Barbara Loden; an innovative, influential independent American film
• 1971 The Woman's Film; directors: Louise Alaimo, Judy Smith
• 1971 The Long Farewell; director: Kira Muratova
• 1971 L'aggettivo donna; directors: Ronny Daopolus, Annabella Miscuglio; a radical feminist documentary which analyses the double exploitation of women workers and the isolated situation of housewives and children
• 1971 Für Frauen: 1. Kapitel (For Women: Chapter 1); writer and director: Cristina Perincioli – award-winning documentary fiction on a women's strike in Berlin
• 1972 Sambizanga; director: Sarah Maldoror – feature film about the liberation movement in Angola
• 1972 The Heartbreak Kid; director: Elaine May
• 1972 The Other Side of the Underneath; director Jane Arden
• 1972/73 Es kommt darauf an, sie zu verändern; director: Claudia von Alemann – organised women workers discuss the possibilities for change
• 1974 Il portiere di notte (The Night Porter); director: Liliana Cavani
• 1974 Vibration (short) ; co-director: Jane Arden
• 1974 The Hour of Liberation Has Arrived ; director: Heiny Srour
• 1975 Kaddy Bekat – Lettre Paysanne (Letter from My Village); director: Safi Faye
• 1975 The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum (Die Verlorene Ehre der Katharina Blum oder: Wie Gewalt entstehen und wohin sie führen kann); directors: Margarethe von Trotta and Volker Schlöndorff
• 1975 Hester Street; director: Joan Micklin Silver; Academy Award nomination for Carol Kane as best actress
• 1975 The Other Half of the Sky: A China Memoir; directors: Shirley MacLaine, Claudia Weill; Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary Feature
• 1975 Anna und Edith; writers: Cristina Perincioli and Cäcilia Rentmeister – first feature film in German TV ZDF on a lesbian relationship
• 1975 Seven Beauties; director: Lina Wertmüller
• 1976 Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles; director: Chantal Akerman – the daily life of a housewife
• 1975 Catherine & Co.; director: Catherine Breillat
• 1976 A Real Young Girl; director: Catherine Breillat
• 1976 Pasqualino settebellezze (Seven Beauties); director: Lina Wertmüller; the first time a woman was nominated for an Academy Award for directing a feature film
• 1976 Harlan County, USA; director: Barbara Kopple; Academy Award winner for best documentary feature; selected for preservation in the National Film Registry
• 1977 First Love; director: Joan Darling
• 1977 One Sings, the Other Doesn't; director: Agnes Varda
• 1977 The Ascent; director: Larissa Shepitko
• 1977 News from Home; director: Chantal Akerman
• 1977 Les Rendez-vous d'Anna; director: Chantal Akerman
• 1978 Die allseitig reduzierte Persönlichkeit (The Universally Reduced Personality); director: Helke Sander
• 1978 Girlfriends; director: Claudia Weill; selected for preservation in the National Film Registry
• 1978 The Mafu Cage; director: Karen Arthur
• 1978 Mais qu'est ce qu'elles veulent? (But what do they want, after all?) – director: Coline Serreau
• 1978 Rabbit Test; director: Joan Rivers
• 1978 Die Macht der Männer ist die Geduld der Frauen (The Power of Men is the Patience of Women); writer, director, producer: Cristina Perincioli – (ZDF TV) feature film/documentary fiction on domestic violence
• 1978 Getting to Know the Big, Wide World; director: Kira Muratova
• 1979 Daughter Rite; director: Michelle Citron – a feminist pseudo-documentary which deconstructs the conventions of Direct Cinema
• 1979 Ticket of No Return (Bildnis einer Trinkerin); director: Ulrike Ottinger
• 1979 Killing Us Softly; directors: Margaret Lazarus, Renner Wunderlich – the effects of advertising on women
• 1979 Deutschland bleiche Mutter (Germany Pale Mother); director: Helma Sanders-Brahms
• 1979 My Brilliant Career, starring Judy Davis; director: Gillian Armstrong
• 1979 Anti-Clock; writer and co-director Jane Arden

• 1980 The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter (documentary); director: Connie Field; selected for preservation in the National Film Registry
• 1980 It's My Turn; director: Claudia Weill
• 1981 Eight Minutes to Midnight: A Portrait of Dr. Helen Caldicott; director: Mary Benjamin; Academy Award nomination for best feature documentary
• 1981 The Decline of Western Civilization; director: Penelope Spheeris
• 1981 36 Chowringhee Lane; director: Aparna Sen
• 1981 The German Sisters; director: Margarethe von Trotta
• 1982 Fast Times at Ridgemont High; starring Sean Penn; director: Amy Heckerling
• 1983 Among Grey Stones; director: Kira Muratova
• 1983 Yentl; director: Barbra Streisand; The first woman to win a Golden Globe for direction
• 1983 The Gold Diggers; director: Sally Potter
• 1983 Born in Flames; director: Lizzie Borden
• 1983 Le Grain de sable (Grain of Sand); director: Pomme Meffre – the gradual disintegration of a woman (played by Delphine Seyrig)
• 1983 Variety; director: Bette Gordon, starring Sandy McLeod
• 1985 Desperately Seeking Susan, starring Madonna; director: Susan Seidelman
• 1985 Vagabond; director: Agnes Varda
• 1985 Real Genius; director: Martha Coolidge
• 1985 Verführung: die grausame Frau (Seduction: The Cruel Woman); directors: Elfi Mikesch, Monika Treut
• 1986 Children of a Lesser God; director: Randa Haines; Academy Award for Marlee Matlin as best actress
• 1987 Near Dark; director: Kathryn Bigelow
• 1986 Working Girls; director: Lizzie Borden
• 1986 Jumpin' Jack Flash (film); director: Penny Marshall, starring Whoopi Goldberg
• 1988 Big, starring Tom Hanks; director: Penny Marshall
• 1988 Salaam Bombay!; director: Mira Nair; nominated for an Academy Award as Best Foreign Language Film (India)
• 1988 Love, Women, and Flowers (AmorR, Mujeres, y Flores); directors: Marta Rodriguez and Jorge Silva (Colombia)
• 1988 Little Dorrit (film); director: Christine Edzard
• 1988 Agnes Escapes from the Nursing Home; director: Eileen O'Meara
• 1988 Chocolat; director Claire Denis
• 1988 Die Jungfrauenmaschine (Virgin Machine); director: Monika Treut
• 1988 Kali-Filme (Kalih Films); directors: Birgit Hein and Wilhelm Hein
• 1988 36 Fillette; director: Catherine Breillat
• 1989 A Dry White Season; director: Euzhan Palcy
• 1989 Pet Sematary; director: Mary Lambert
• 1989 The Asthenic Syndrome; director: Kira Muratova
• 1989 Sweetie; director Jane Campion

• 1990 Europa, Europa; director: Agnieszka Holland
• 1990 An Angel at My Table; director: Jane Campion
• 1990 No Fear, No Die; director: Claire Denis
• 1990 Paris is Burning; director: Jennie Livingston
• 1991 Thousand Pieces of Gold; director: Nancy Kelly
• 1991 Point Break; director Kathryn Bigelow
• 1991 Daughters of the Dust; director: Julie Dash; selected for preservation in the National Film Registry
• 1991 A Place of Rage; director: Pratibha Parmar
• 1991 American Dream; director: Barbara Kopple; Academy Award winner for best documentary feature
• 1991 Proof; director: Jocelyn Moorhouse;
• 1991 Danzon; director: Maria Novaro
• 1991 The Prince of Tides; director: Barbra Streisand; 7 Academy Award nominations including for Barbra Streisand (producer) as Best Picture
• 1992 Little Noises; director: Jane Spencer
• 1992 Gas Food Lodging; director: Allison Anders
• 1992 Orlando; director: Sally Potter
• 1992 History and Memory: For Akiko and Takashige[83] 1992 ; director Rea Tajiri
• 1992 A League of Their Own; director: Penny Marshall
• 1992 Wayne's World; director: Penelope Spheeris
• 1993 Bhaji on the Beach; director: Gurinder Chadha
• 1993 Sleepless in Seattle; director: Nora Ephron
• 1994 The Piano; director: Jane Campion, the second time a woman was nominated for an Academy Award for directing a feature film; Academy Award for Holly Hunter as best actress and Anna Paquin as best supporting actress
• 1994 Complaints of a Dutiful Daughter; director: Deborah Hoffman
• 1994 Mi Vida Loca; director: Allison Anders
• 1994 Black Beauty; director: Caroline Thompson
• 1994 I Can't Sleep; director: Claire Denis
• 1994 Little Women; director: Gillian Armstrong
• 1994 River of Grass; director: Kelly Reichardt
• 1995 Billy Madison; director: Tamra Davis
• 1995 Clueless (film), director: Amy Heckerling
• 1995 Coûte que coûte (At all costs); director: Claire Simon – documentary
• 1995 Antonia's Line; director: Marleen Gorris; Academy Award for best foreign film, the first time awarded to a female film director.
• 1995 Strange Days; director: Kathryn Bigelow
• 1996 Fire; director: Deepa Mehta
• 1996 Unstrung Heroes; director: Diane Keaton
• 1996 White Men Are Cracking Up; director: Ngozi Onwurah
• 1996 The Mirror Has Two Faces; director: Barbra Streisand; Academy Award nomination for Lauren Bacall as best supporting actress
• 1996 The Portrait of a Lady; director Jane Campion
• 1996 I Shot Andy Warhol; director: Mary Harron
• 1996 Nénette and Boni; director: Claire Denis
• 1997 Strawberry Fields; director: Rea Tajiri[84]
• 1997 The Peacemaker; director: Mimi Leder
• 1997 The Tango Lesson; director: Sally Potter
• 1998 That Strange Person, director: Eileen O'Meara
• 1998 Free Tibet, director: Sarah Pirozek
• 1998 Deep Impact, director: Mimi Leder
• 1998 Half Baked; director: Tamra Davis
• 1998 High Art; director: Lisa Cholodenko
• 1999 Beau Travail; director: Claire Denis
• 1999 Holy Smoke!; director: Jane Campion
• 1999 The Green Elephant; director: Svetlana Baskova
• 1999 Boys Don't Cry (film); director: Kimberly Peirce; Academy Award for Hilary Swank as best actress; nomination for Chloë Sevigny as best supporting actress
• 1999 Romance; director: Catherine Breillat
• 1999 Titus; director: Julie Taymor
• 1999 Beau Travail; director: Claire Denis
• 1999 The Virgin Suicides; director: Sophia Coppola

• 2000 The Man Who Cried; director: Sally Potter
• 2000 American Psycho; director: Mary Harron
• 2000 Luminous Motion; director: Bette Gordon, starring Deborah Kara Unger
• 2000 The Gleaners and I; director: Agnes Varda
• 2001 Fat Girl; director: Catherine Breillat
• 2001 Brief Crossing; director: Catherine Breillat
• 2001 Nowhere in Africa; director: Caroline Link; Academy Award winner as Best Foreign Language Film (Germany)
• 2001 Ophelia Learns to Swim; director: Jurgen Vsych
• 2001 Trouble Every Day; director: Claire Denis
• 2001 La Ciénaga; director: Lucretia Martel
• 2001 Monsoon Wedding; director: Mira Nair
• 2001 Lovely Rita; director Jessica Hausner
• 2002 Sex Is Comedy; director: Catherine Breillat
• 2002 Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood director: Callie Khouri
• 2002 Frida; director: Julie Taymor
• 2002 Five Bottles of Vodka; director: Svetlana Baskova
• 2002 Laurel Canyon; director: Lisa Cholodenko
• 2002 Vendredi soir; director: Claire Denis
• 2003 The Head; director: Svetlana Baskova
• 2003 In the Cut; director: Jane Campion
• 2003 Whale Rider; director Niki Caro; Academy Award nomination for Keisha Castle-Hughes as best actress
• 2003 Take My Eyes; director: Icíar Bollaín
• 2003 Thirteen; director Catherine Hardwicke; Academy Award nomination for Holly Hunter as best supporting actress
• 2003 Gujarat: A Laboratory of Hindu Rastra, Fascism; director: Suma Josson
• 2003 Monster; director: Patty Jenkins; Academy Award for Charlize Theron as best actress
• 2003 At Five in the Afternoon; director: Samira Makhmalbaf
• 2003 The Forest for the Trees; director: Maren Ade
• 2004 Anatomy of Hell; director: Catherine Breillat
• 2004 Cavedweller; director: Lisa Cholodenko
• 2004 Goddess: How I fell in Love; director Renata Litvinova
• 2004 Lost in Translation; director: Sofia Coppola, the third time a woman was nominated for an Academy Award for directing a feature film; also nominated for best picture and best actor, Bill Murray
• 2004 Dear Frankie; director: Shona Auerbach, a 2004 British drama film set in a Glasgow suburb, starring Emily Mortimer and Gerard Butler
• 2004 The Intruder; director: Claire Denis
• 2004 Somersault; director: Cate Shortland, a 2004 Australian coming of age drama, starring Abbie Cornish
• 2004 (Mother's Day) director (Tsitsi Dangarembga)
• 2004 Mars; director: Anna Melikyan
• 2004 Hotel; director: Jessica Hausner
• 2004 Yes; director: Sally Potter
• 2005 Close to Home, directors: Dalia Hager, Vidi Bilu
• 2005 Born into Brothels: Calcutta's Red Light Kids (documentary); directors: Zana Briski, Ross Kauffman; Academy Award winner for best documentary feature
• 2005 North Country; director: Niki Caro; Academy Award-nominated performances by Charlize Theron (best actress) and Frances McDormand (best supporting actress)
• 2005 Sisters of '77; producers and directors: Cynthia Salzman Mondell and Allen Mondell; executive producer Ed Delaney; produced in association with The Women's Museum
• 2005 Look Both Ways; director: Sarah Watt, a 2005 Australian drama
• 2006 Old Joy; director: Kelly Reichardt
• 2006 Stick it; writer/director: Jessica Bendinger
• 2006 Piter FM; director: Oksana Bychkova
• 2006 Away from Her; director: Sarah Polley
• 2006 Marie Antoinette, starring Kirsten Dunst; director: Sofia Coppola
• 2006 Red Road; director: Andrea Arnold
• 2007 The Last Mistress; director: Catherine Breillat
• 2007 All Is Forgiven; director: Mia Hansen-Løve
• 2007 Mermaid; director Anna Melikyan
• 2007 Feminine, Masculine (2007), director: Sadaf Foroughi
• 2007 Across the Universe; director: Julie Taymor
• 2007 The Savages; director: Tamara Jenkins
• 2007 Never Forever; director: Gina Kim
• 2007 Water Lilies; director: Céline Sciamma
• 2008 Everybody Dies but Me; director: Valeriya Gai Germanika
• 2008 Frozen River; director: Courtney Hunt
• 2008 The Headless Woman; director: Lucrecia Martel
• 2008 The Beaches of Agnes; director: Agnes Varda
• 2008 Wendy and Lucy; director: Kelly Reichardt
• 2008 Stop-Loss; director: Kimberly Peirce
• 2008 35 Shots of Rum; director: Claire Denis
• 2009 Father of My Children; director: Mia Hansen-Løve
• 2009 The Hurt Locker; director: Kathryn Bigelow The first female to win an Oscar for direction.
• 2009 Bright Star; director: Jane Campion
• 2009 Fish Tank; director: Andrea Arnold
• 2009 Everyone Else; director: Maren Ade
• 2009 White Material; director: Claire Denis
• 2009 Lourdes; director: Jessica Hausner
• 2009 Rage; director: Sally Potter
• 2009 Bluebeard; director: Catherine Breillat

• 2010 The Tempest; director: Julie Taymor
• 2010 I Will Follow; director: Ava DuVernay
• 2010 Denizen; director: J.A. Steel[85]
• 2010 Winter's Bone; director: Debra Granik
• 2010 The Kids Are All Right; director: Lisa Cholodenko
• 2010 Meek's Cutoff; director; Kelly Reichardt
• 2011 Wuthering Heights; director: Andrea Arnold
• 2011 I Am; director: Sonali Gulati
• 2011 Sengadal; director: Leena Manimekalai
• 2011 We Need to Talk About Kevin; director: Lynne Ramsay
• 2011 Pariah; director: Dee Rees
• 2011 Goodbye First Love; director Mia Hansen-Løve
• 2011 Two Days; director: Avdotya Smirnova
• 2011 Tomboy; director: Céline Sciamma
• 2011 In the Land of Blood and Honey; director: Angelina Jolie
• 2012 Middle of Nowhere; director: Ava DuVernay
• 2012 Zero Dark Thirty; director: Kathryn Bigelow
• 2012 Wadjda; director: Haifaa al-Mansour first film to be shot entirely in Saudi Arabia
• 2012 Saving Face; director: Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, Academy award-winning documentary film
• 2012 Stories We Tell; director: Sarah Polley
• 2013 Abuse of Weakness; director: Catherine Breillat
• 2013 Bastards; director: Claire Denis
• 2013 Carrie; director Kimberly Peirce
• 2013 Night Moves; director: Kelly Reichardt
• 2013 Palo Alto; director: Gia Coppola
• 2012 Ginger & Rosa; director: Sally Potter
• 2013 Frozen, director: Jennifer Lee (filmmaker) co-directed with Chris Buck, The first female director of a feature film that earned more than $1 billion in gross box office revenue.
• 2013 Desert Runners; director and producer: Jennifer Steinman.
• 2013 Final Recipe, director: Gina Kim
• 2014 Selma; director: Ava DuVernay
• 2014 Dukhtar; director: Afia Nathaniel
• 2014 A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night: director: Ana Lily Amirpour
• 2014 Girlhood; director: Celine Sciamma
• 2014 The Wonders: director: Alice Rohrwacher
• 2014 Amour Fou: director: Jessica Hausner
• 2014 Eden; director; Mia Hansen-Løve
• 2014 Unbroken; director: Angelina Jolie
• 2015 Songs My Brothers Taught Me; director: Chloé Zhao
• 2015 Good Morning Karachi; director: Sabiha Sumar
• 2015 3 Bahadur; director: Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy
• 2015 Mustang; director: Deniz Gamze Ergüven
• 2015 By the Sea; director: Angelina Jolie
• 2016 Certain Women; director: Kelly Reichardt
• 2016 American Honey, director: Andrea Arnold
• 2016 The Love Witch, director: Anna Biller
• 2016 Things to Come; director: Mia Hansen-Love
• 2016 Toni Erdmann; director: Maren Ade
• 2016 Raw; director: Julia Ducournau
• 2017 The Party; director: Sally Potter
• 2017 Wonder Woman; director: Patty Jenkins
• 2017 Lady Bird; director: Greta Gerwig
• 2017 Let the Sunshine In; director: Claire Denis
• 2017 The Rider; director: Chloé Zhao
• 2017 You Were Never Really Here; director: Lynne Ramsay
• 2017 Maya Dardel; director: Magdalena Zyzak
• 2017 First they Killed My Father; director: Angelina Jolie
• 2018 Maya; director: Mia Hansen-Løve
• 2018 Story of One Appointment; director: Avdotya Smirnova
• 2018 Happy as Lazzaro; director: Alice Rohrwacher
• 2018 The Man Who Surprised Everyone; director Natasha Merkulova
• 2018 A Wrinkle in Time; director: Ava DuVernay
• 2018 Can You Ever Forgive Me?; director: Marielle Heller
• 2018 High Life; director: Claire Denis
• 2018 Leave No Trace; director: Debra Granik
• 2018 M; director: Anna Eriksson
• 2019 Captain Marvel; director: Anna Boden co-directed with Ryan Fleck
• 2019 Hustlers; director: Lorene Scafaria
• 2019 Little Women; director: Greta Gerwig
• 2019 The Farewell; director: Lulu Wang
• 2019 Frozen II; director: Jennifer Lee co-directed with Chris Buck
• 2019 Portrait of a Lady on Fire; director: Celine Sciamma
• 2019 The Souvenir; director: Joanna Hogg
• 2019 First Cow; director: Kelly Reichardt
• 2019 Little Joe; director: Jessica Hausner
• 2019 Atlantics; director: Mati Diop
• 2019 The Wall of Mexico; director: Magdalena Zyzak
• 2019 When I'm a Moth; director: Magdalena Zyzak

• 2020 The Glorias; director: Julie Taymor
• 2020 The Roads Not Taken; director: Sally Potter
• 2020 Mainstream; director: Gia Coppola
• 2020 The Three; director Anna Melikian
• 2020 Birds of Prey; director: Cathy Yan
• 2020 Promising Young Woman; director: Emerald Fennell
• 2020 Nomadland; director: Chloé Zhao
• 2020 Never Rarely Sometimes Always; director: Eliza Hittman
• 2020 Wonder Woman 1984; director: Patty Jenkins
• 2021 Bergman Island; director: Mia Hansen-Løve
• 2021 The North Wind; director Renata Litvinova
• 2021 Gerda; director Natalya Kudryashova
• 2021 Captain Volkonogov Escaped; director: Natasha Merkulova
• 2021 Pleasure; director Ninja Thyberg
• 2021 Black Widow; director: Cate Shortland
• 2021 The Fallout; director: Megan Park
• 2021 The Power of the Dog; director: Jane Campion
• 2021 Petite Maman; director: Celine Sciamma
• 2021 Happening; director: Audrey Diwan
• 2021 Yuni; director: Kamila Andini
• 2021 CODA; director: Siân Heder
• 2021 Censor; director: Prano Bailey-Bond
• 2021 Quarantine; director: Diana Ringo
• 2021 Titane; director: Julia Ducournau
• 2021 Violet; director: Justine Bateman
• 2021 Wolf; director: Nathalie Biancheri
• 2022 Hatching; director Hanna Bergholm
• 2022 Girl Picture; director Alli Haapasalo
• 2022 The Stars at Noon; director: Claire Denis
• 2022 Both Sides of the Blade; director: Claire Denis
• 2022 Piggy; director: Carlota Pereda
• 2022 Where the Crawdads Sing; director: Olivia Newman
• 2022 Fresh; director: Mimi Fresh
•  ???? Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe; director: Aitch Alberto
•  ???? Emily; director: Frances O’Connor

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• Julia Knight, Women and the New German Cinema, Verso 1992
• Denise Lowe, An encyclopedic dictionary of women in early American films, 1895–1930, New York [u.a.] : Haworth Press, 2005
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• Sarah Projansky, Watching Rape: Film and Television in Postfeminist Culture, New York University Press 2001
• Quart, Barbara Koenig: Women Directors: The Emergence of a New Cinema, Praeger 1988
• Judith Redding, Victoria A. Brownworth, Film Fatales: Independent Women Directors, Seal Press 1997, based on interviews with 33 film makers
• Rich, B. Ruby. Chick Flicks: Theories and Memories of the Feminist Film Movement. Durham, N. C.: Duke University Press, 1998.
• Carrie Tarr with Brigitte Rollet, Cinema and the Second Sex. Women's Filmmaking in France in the 1980s and 1990s, New York, Continuum, 2001.
• Amy L. Unterburger, ed., The St. James Women Filmmakers Encyclopedia: Women on the Other Side of the Camera, Paperback, Visible Ink Press 1999
• Women Filmmakers: Refocusing, edited by Jacqueline Levitin, Judith Plessis and Valerie Raoul, Paperback Edition, Routledge 2003
• Rashkin, E. (2001). Women Filmmakers in Mexico: The Country of Which We Dream. University of Texas Press; annotated edition.

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